Thursday, January 24, 2008

The cold of the Midwest winter will be broken up this Saturday with Title Fight Championship's “Awakening” event. The mixed martial arts fight card will take place at the Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines, Iowa. The main event will be a clash against 185 pound MMA veterans Mike Van Meer and Brian Green. Also on the card are two of Team Revolution’s up and coming fighters, T.J. “Da Spyder” O’Brien and Jesse Lund. Both are looking to continue on their winning ways and gain valuable fight experience. I was able to correspond with both before writing this article.

T.J. O’Brien has a lightweight fight with Jeff Carstens. Carstens is an experienced mixed martial artist with over fourteen pro fights to his name. All of Carstens' victories (and most of his losses) have come by way of submission. T.J. is aware of Cartens' love of the ground game and counter punching, and plans to use his reach advantage to control the fight. As a tall and lean 155 pound fighter TJ. said, "[m]y biggest assets coming into the fight would be my transition and my size. I fight at 155 and I am 6'2" so that gives me a reach advantage." T.J. will also look to establish his combinations and push the action.

T.J. is a graduate of Martensdale St. Marys High School and currently goes to Des Moines Area Community College. During high school, T.J. was a four time letter winner in basketball and track, taking part in state track meets all four years and still holds the record in the 4 X 400 meters. He has been studying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for a little over a year.

Team Revolution’s Jesse Lund is in a 205 pound contest with Bryant Reynolds. Jesse was a four year wrestler at Nodaway Valley High School in Iowa, qualifying for state his senior year. When asked about the transition to mma, Jesse said, “[i]t was a hard transition from wrestling to jiu jitsu, especially pulling guard vs keeping your base. I had zero stand up skills, but now feel very strong on my feet, thanks to Rev for the hands and Razor for the kicks.”

In regards to his opponent on Saturday, Jesse knows little about his foe's skills other than his wrestling ability. Jesse is not coming into the fight with a specific game plan because he knows it will go out the window once he is hit. Jesse looks to keep the fight standing to show off his striking skills. But when the fight hits the ground, Jesse sees a quick victory coming. Jesse is a father of two, Baylie (6) and Blake (3), and gives extra thanks to his wife Theresa. She has allowed him to train, arranged for babysitters, and helped with ticket sales.

Both fighters wanted to give thanks to “The Reverend” Chuck Grigsby and Team Revolution. Jesse was not getting enough training at his previous camp before he called Rev and asked about joining the gym. T.J. was invited after talking to Rev while lifting weights at the YMCA.

I want to wish both the fighters luck in their bouts this weekend. I’ll let everyone know the results and hopefully will get some pictures up. If anyone still needs tickets, click on the Team Revolution link on the right.

Jesse Lund

T.J. O'Brien

*The text of this article is intellectual property owned by the MMA Blaster

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Three exciting fights made the broadcast on Wednesday night. The amount of fluff that goes into the Spike live telecasts is pretty harsh. There were 30 minutes of filler before the first fight. Then there was a long interview with Sly Stallone, and another with two guys from Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Tour. There was also the Rambo replay. Needless to say, it would have been nice if they could have put the Wiman fight that ended in the first or Corey Hill's fight that ended at the start of the second. Here are the results:

Mike Swick def. Josh Burkman via majority decision - Overall a relatively repetitive fight. Burkman tried to get a takedown, was stopped, and the fight was reset. The karate kick roundhouse by Burkman and a couple other wild and unsuccessful moves were interesting. Swick's heavy kick to Burkman's jugular probably won him a round. The other two rounds were very close. In my book this fight could have easily been a draw.

Patrick Cote def. Andrew McFedries via TKO (strikes) — R1, 1:44 - This was a very exciting 1:44 worth of action. Both fighters exchanged shots taking blows, and Cote lulled McFedries in. Cote next smashed McFedries on the jaw, following McFedries to the canvas with an uppercut. The fight was stopped with McFedries basically against the fence with his hands up taking punches.

Thiago Tavares def. Michihiro Omigawa via unanimous decision - After an entertaining grappling match in the first round, the rest of the fight was uneventful.

Nate Diaz def. Alvin Robinson via Submission (triangle choke) — R1, 3:39 - Diaz looks to be the real deal as he sealed this win with a perfectly executed triangle. After connecting with a hook, Diaz slammed Robinson to the mat, but found himself in a tight guillotine choke. Diaz stayed calm, worked himself out, and looked crisp with his grappling in the win. His legs from the bottom are never stopping as he looked extremely limber applying the triangle. *My pick for submission of the night.

Kurt Pellegrino def. Alberto Crane via TKO (strikes) — R2, 1:55 - This fight is the type that makes some a little squeemish. Crane opened the fight with a head kick that struck Pellegrino right in the mouth. Pellegrino's bottom tooth actually punctured his skin. Crane went for a choke with Pellegrino on the floor, but the dazed Pellegrino didn't submit. Maybe because he was unconscious. Crane should have punched Kurt out there, but his inexperience showed. In the second round, Pellegrino struck Crane near the eye, and when Crane grimaced, held his face and rolled, the fight was called. *My pick for KO of the night. *Fight of the night.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

UFC 80 was a better ppv than many expected. With the tempature at 5 degrees Saturday night, it was an easy decision to get it. The main card was basically all early stoppages and most were pretty good contests. No fight of the year canidates, but solid.

B.J. Penn def. Joe Stevenson via sub (rear-naked choke) — R2. 4:02*BJ dominated the fight from start to finish. A nasty elbow opened up a gash on Stevenson's hairline and the blood flowed until the perfect rear naked choke that BJ sunk in near the end of the second. Probably a fight where one could say elbows should be banned from the UFC.

Fabricio Werdum def. Gabriel Gonzaga via TKO (strikes) — R2, 4:34*Gonzaga won the first round with devastating low kicks. He was probably winning the second round too, until he missed with a high kick. Werdum capitalized and punched Gonzaga into submission.

Wilson Gouveia def. Jason Lambert via KO (punch) — R2, 0:37 *Lambert dominated the first round with a takedown and punches. In the second, he looked to continue his ways, but in a flurry was hit right on the button and sent to the floor hard.

Jorge Rivera def. Kendall Grove via TKO (strikes) — R1, 1:20 *Kendall's fighting career is trouble right now with back to back losses. He was manhandled by Rivera who had just been crushed by Terry Martin.

"The Reverend" Charles Grigsby (15-3, VCC and MCC Light Heavyweight Champ), recently informed me that he has signed a multi-fight deal to fight in the WEC. The WEC is an organization owned by UFC's parent corporation Zuffa, yet runs independently of the UFC.

The Reverend's first fight was scheduled for June 1, 2008. As it stands, Rev's originaly scheduled opponent, Lew Polley (6-0 Sherdog Record, 8-1 ATT website record), has withdrawn from the fight to fight on an Elite XC card. Rev may fight in card promoted in Florida in March prior to the WEC fight, he will let us know.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The following is a bulletin posted by Cage Rage from their Myspace page:

"Cage Rage is pleased to announce that mixed martial arts legend Ken Shamrock will be fighting Robert “ Buzz” Berry, at Cage Rage 25 - Bring it on! From a young age Ken proved to be a tough competitor in all forms of combat sports and at the age of 19 Ken won his first Toughman competition by knocking out his first two opponents with the third pulling out claiming injury. Shamrock spent many years competing in wrestling until one day in 1993 he stumbled across an advert in a popular American martial arts magazine calling for experts in martial arts to compete in a no holds barred bare knuckle tournament . From there the legend of Ken Shamrock was born, Ken went on to compete many times over the years and has a Sherdog record 26-12-2. Ken has headlined many fighting events all over the World and now he will be making his first visit to London’s famous Wembley Arena where he look to excite an expectant crowd."

In Robert "Buzz" Berry, Ken will face a 6'3" 250 pound fighter who is 2-4 in his last six fights. Berry (11-7) has had every fight but one end in the first round. Shamrock has lost four in a row, and since his return to MMA in 2000 is 3-7.

I predict Ken will win via a rear naked choke in the first round. This would mirror what Dan Severn did to Berry in 2006.

The World Cagefighting Organization was supposed to have a star studded lineup of ex-UFC talent for its Saturday show. They included UFC 14 and 15 champ Mark Kerr, ex-UFC heavyweight champ Ricco Rodriguez, UFC vets Renato Sobral, Joe Riggs, David Loiseau, Tiki Ghosn and Carmelo Marrero. According to Sherdog.com, the weigh-in on Friday lasted five hours and Ghosn and Marrero's opponents failed to appear. On Saturday the card disintegrated, the fights didn't happen, and hopefully the fighters got a 20% cut.

I was looking forward to surfing the net to find the WCO fights today. Since there are none to share with you, here is a clip of David Loiseau's buddy Georges St. Pierre showing us how to do the Superman punch.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

The UFC 81 card is shaping up to be the type of card that destroys MMA pay per view numbers. The card is officially headlined by Tim Sylvia vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the Heavyweight Belt. The unoffical headlining fight that will be hyped to death will be Brock Lesnar v. Frank Mir. Here is a look at the potential fights:

Tim Sylvia (24-3) vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (30-4-1)- HW Title- Two time UFC HW Champ Sylvia just beat Brandon Vera after losing the belt to Couture. Nogueira did not look impressive in his bout with Herring, but is widely regarded as the second best heavyweight of alltime with wins over Josh Barnett, Sergei Kharitonov, Cro Cop, Fabricio Werdum, Dan Henderson and Mark Coleman.

Tyson Griffin (10-1) vs. Gleison Tibau (15-4)- Tyson has wins over Clay Guida and Thiago Taveres since his loss to Frank Edgar. Tibau has four wins in a row, three in the UFC, since his loss to Nick Diaz in UFC 65. This fight will be all action.

Marvin Eastman (14-7) vs. Terry Martin (16-3)- I'd like to see this fight make the ppv because there will be plenty of bombs thrown. Eastman's last UFC appearance was a KO loss to Rampage. Martin last was KO'd by Chris Leben. Wouldn't be surprised if one of these guys is moved to fight Marquardt.

Chris Lytle (24-15) v. Kyle Bradley (13-4)- Lytle is coming off a loss due to a cut from Thiago Alves. Bradley has 7 straight victories.

Brock Lesnar (1-0) vs. Frank Mir (10-3) - Hype Machine commence

"Finally" is all I have to say about this dynamite heavyweight contest. The anticipation of Lesnar's entrance into the UFC has been all the rage on internet MMA forums. People have been waiting for this for a long time. There are three different distinct opinions when it comes to Lesnar and his chances in MMA - the Lesnar is God and can take Fedor on next camp, the Lesnar is a former NCAA Champ/freak athlete division, and the Lesnar will suck because he has no standup or submission defense camp.

I fall into the Lesnar is a former NCAA Champ and freak athlete camp. You can't deny the fact that NCAA champions can and do perform exceptionally in mixed martial arts. His training video is something of legend. He has been training for two years in preparation for his big UFC debut and I hope he has been practicing his submission defense for this contest.

Mir is simply no joke when it comes to submissions, and after he broke Tim Sylvia's arm to capture the UFC Heavyweight title, he had everyone clamoring about the excellent JJ Mir had on display. His toe hold over Tank was really no surprise, but if you haven't seen that video, it is pretty good.

For anyone who didn't see Lesnar's debut in K1 I have posted it below. As you can see, Lesnar's gameplan was simple. Take Min So Kim down and pound him into oblivion. He made a good pass to the mount which I don't see Mir allowing.

My prediction is Lesnar by ground and pound in the second or third round. Yes, Mir could find Lesnar's overextended arm for a sub, but I don't think you can secure that mammouth neck for a choke. One thing is for certain, this will be one of the UFC's most hyped events. For those of you who don't necessarily appreciate the UFC hype machine, I feel for you.

Some additional notes: Many have labeled Lesnar's sole MMA opponent Min Soo Kim a can. However, he recently TKO'd Ikuhisa "The Punk" Minowa on October 28 of 2007 in K1. Minowa has victories over MMA vets Gilbert Yvel, Kimo and Phil Baroni.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Nobody knows much about Tim Kennedy (9-2) who is an active army ranger, and an occasional member of the Pit. But with his impressive record and talent we should. He has wins over Jason "Mayhem" Miller (19-5), Dante Rivera (10-2), Ryan McGivern (i5), Hector Urbina (9-3) and Cruz Chacon (11-11). He recently lost a decision to Mayhem Miller, and two weeks later KO'd Elias Rivera.

Kennedy v. McGivern

Tim is an impressive 3-0 in IFL competition, and 1-0 in the WEC. In addition, Tim has fought in the army compatives mma tournaments. In 07', he won his five matches in less than 10 minutes. That tourney win was his third straight.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Tonight on Spike at 8:00 pm CST will be the UFC's installment of their 12th Ultimate Fight Night series. Given that their are seven lightwieght contests you tell the division is starting to get crowded and that a 145 pound featherweight division may be needed. Like most MMA fans, I'd much rather see Spike squeeze an extra fight or two because I'm interested to see how some of the undercard plays out.

MAIN CARD

WW- Josh Burkman (9-4) vs. Mike Swick (10-2)- Mike Swick is making his debut at 170 following his loss to Yushin Okami. Previously, Swick had won five straight at 185. Burkman is 5-2 in the UFC with his last four fights going to decision.

MW- Patrick Côté (11-4) vs. Drew McFedries (6-2)- Côté has won two straight in the UFC and one in the TKO since his loss to Travis Lutter for the TUF 4 title. McFredreis recently KO'd Jordan Radev in 33 seconds, his previous fight saw him losing via a deep arm triangle by Martin Kampmann.

LW- Thiago Tavares (12-1) vs. Michihiro Omigawa (4-5)- Thiago was undefeated before losing a decision to Tyson Griffin in his last bout. Judo master Omigawa lost in his last UFC fight to Matt Wiman.

LW- Nate Diaz (7-2) vs. Alvin Robinson (9-2)- TUF 5 winner Nate Diaz looks to keep the win streak going. His last loss was to Hermes Franca at WEC 24. Robinson beat Jorge Gurgel in his last fight and lost to Kenny Florian previously in his UFC career.

UNDERCARD

LW- Alberto Crane (8-1) vs. Kurt Pellegrino (10-3)- Both fighters are looking to rebound from losses. Crane last lost to Roger Huerta. Pellegrino last lost to Joe Stevenson.

LW- Cole Miller (13-2) vs. Jeremy Stephens (12-2)- The tall and limber BJJ specialist Cole Miller has won 4 in a row and 2 in the UFC. Recently he got a win over Leonard Garcia at UFN 11. Stephens has won 2 in a row, one in the UFC and one in the MCC.

LW- Corey Hill (1-0) vs. Joe Veres (4-2)- 6'5" Corey Hill finally makes his debut on the big stage in the UFC. He is a major prospect and Jens Pulver took paid extra attention to him on TUF 5. On the show Hill lost to Nate Diaz after beating Robert Emerson.

LW- Justin Buchholz (7-1) vs. Matt Wiman (8-3)- After losing two straight, Wiman has won two straight in the UFC since his TUF 5 appearance. Buchholz has won four straight in Hawaii taking part in Elite XC, Icon and ROTR promotions. He previously fought in the Alaska Fighting Championship.

After testing positive for steroids and losing an appeal (even though fine was reduced) Sean Sherk was stripped of his lightweight title. Fighting for the open lightweight title are BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson. The ppv will be airing live at 3pm EST, and again on tape delay 10pm EST. Here are the fights:

B.J. Penn (11-4) vs. Joe Stevenson (28-7)(for lightweight title)- After watching BJ's training on Countdown to UFC 80, I'm sure he can pull this win out. BJ is watching his diet, training like a cardio machine, and seeing the stretching demonstration made me think he has something coming for Stevenson. Stevenson is no slouch, but I just don't think he has the experience against A-level kind of competition. He seems to be a little too much in awe of BJ. Pick- Penn sub rd 3.

Gabriel Gonzaga (8-2) vs. Fabricio Werdum (9-3)- This is a big fight for both fighters as they are both coming off losses in big fights. Werdum is talking about ending the fight in the first round, but I don't see it happeneing. Pick- Gonzaga TKO rd 3.

Marcus Davis (13-3) vs. Jess Liaudin (12-8)- I would have liked to see Davis take on a legit title contender. Davis is riding a 10 fight win streak with 5 straight in the UFC. Liaudin has won 5 straight including 2 wins in the UFC. Pick- Davis KO rd 2.

Jason Lambert (23-6) vs. Wilson Gouveia (9-4)- Lambert is coming off a huge win over Babalu, but that was last March. Gouveia has three wins in a row since his decision loss to Jardine. Pick- Gouveia wins by unanimous decision.

Friday, January 4, 2008

CBS Sportsline's mma section has a tournament posted of the best fighters of all-time.

http://cbs.sportsline.com/mmaboxing/story/10890924

The way it works is that each fighter fights in his prime. No gi. Modern MMA rules with 4 oz. gloves. A very interesting concept in that you take Ken Shamrock in his prime, 1996, Dan Severn in his prime, 1995, Sakuraba in his prime, 1999. They say it is based on pure ability so weight is not a factor. In my mind weight would be a factor, and would like to see them split into a lightweight tourney and heavyweight tourney.I've divided the fighters into an under 180 bracket and over 180 bracket. As you could imagine, Rich Franklin would probably be pretty depleted making 180. Liddell, Wanderlei Silva and Jackson could go into the heavyweight tourney at 225.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

This video shows the second fight between Chris Horodecki and Ryan Schultz, this one for the IFL GP 155 pound title. The first encounter left Schultz unconscious and taken out in a stretcher. The IFL posted this video on youtube.

Matt Horwich def. Benji Radach via TKO (strikes) at 1:58 of round two - Horwich (MW champ)(21-9, 3 wins in a row) is certainly an interesting character, but his intense, non-stop fighting style is great to watch.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

The M1 Yarennoka card was held in Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan this New Years Eve. It was solid from top to bottom as everyone expected. Watching the video's online, I could see it was the top card of the New Years collective. Here are the results:

The Fedor fight was interesting in that Hong Man Choi is just so massive. I didn't think I'd ever see Fedor intentionally pull guard but he did, and took a couple big fists to the face to show for it. But, it only took two arm bar attempts to seal the victory.

Bustamante didn't lose his fight, you can never leave a fight to the hands of the judges. Melendez' undefeated streak is over, he didn't look very good out there. Russow looked pretty good in his first fight on a big stage, but Zentsov looked like he just wasn't on his game in that fight.

Akiyama is hated by the Japapese fans after the incident in his fight with Sakuraba. Apparently he was wearing an oil to make his skin more slippery. The fight with Misaki was very entertaining, the ending is pretty spectacular.

Dynamite is probably the way I would describe Kid Yamamoto's (17-1) latest effort against Rani Yahya. Yamamoto overwelmed Yahya from the start and administered punishment from the get go. Here are the quick results:

I watched the fights on Ultimate MMA Fight Videos - see the link on the right. I can't believe Zulu won (Wagner). Bob Sapp beatdown Ologun, the ground and pound shots were massive. Sakuraba looked good in his win over Funaki, Funaki went for the old Pancrase knee bar, but it just didn't do the trick. Manhoef absolutely worked over Nishijima.

Here is a great video that was posted on Youtube by NAPMA.com. Dan Severn teaches ground and pound tactics in a clinic. I would like to see Dan as a coach if they ever do Ultimate Fighter with heavyweights.

MMA Blaster's Fighter of the Year Award was easy to pick. You have to go with Anderson Silva, who had three title defenses and made them all look easy. Coming off his dominating performance over Rich Franklin to round out 2006, Anderson did not let off the accellerator in 2007.

Despite having knee surgery earlier in the year, Anderson first took on Travis Lutter who had won TUF 4. Despite getting taken down, Anderson percevered and crushed the overweight Lutter (9-4) with elbows to stop the fight in the second round. (Because Lutter was overweight, it officially wasn't a title defense but counts in my book)

Next, Anderson took on number 1 contender Nathan Marquardt (25-7-2) and walked through him with relative ease. Anderson was able to dominate in every phase and pummeled Marquardt out in the end of the first round.

Then came the rematch with Rich Franklin, the former UFC posterboy for the 185 pound weight class. Anderson literally seemed to copy the first fight, and dominated again. This fight proved that Anderson is simply a better fighter and cementing his own legacy at 185 by stopping the fight at 1:07 of the second round.

Advertising

Please Follow

UFC, Bellator, One FC, WSOF, M-1, Deep, RFA, Titan FC & more!

MMA Blaster will use all facets of the internet to enhance the MMA experience. Your comments are appreciated. **If you are a fighter or fight promotion looking for interviews regarding an upcoming fight send an email to mmablaster@gmail.com.

Custom MMA Blaster Archive Search

Featured Post

I was able to catch up with Midwest Cage Championship and Victory Cage Championship's 205 pound champ Chuck "The Reverend" Gri...

LEGAL NOTICE

**All text and ideas in this blog are owned by the creator of MMA Blaster. All photographs are believed to be in the public domain as they are available freely on the internet and used incidentally to the story. Some photos were taken by MMA Blaster. All videos are hosted by youtube and believed to be in the public domain.

Per our European visitors, please be advised that this site is a Blogger Google site equipped with Google Adsense and Google Analytics. Please see Blogger's notice for more information regarding consent and cookies. The reason I have Google Analytics is to see what content is getting views to better judge what content to highlight on the front page.